1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a lawn mower with a grass collecting apparatus connected to a rear portion of a traveling vehicle body of the lawnmower, which travels with a mower unit being mounted thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
A grass collecting apparatus of the above type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,398 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,970, in either of which an upper opening edge of a bag-like grass collecting container having an upper opening is attached and supported to a grass collecting container support disposed erect from the vehicle body and a guide hood covering this grass collecting container from the above is connected to a mowed grass discharge conduit extending from a mower implement.
In the case of the grass collecting apparatus with the above-described construction, the grass collecting container is detached by pivotally opening the guide hood upward, during which, however, there is formed a gap between the container support and the guide hood in the vicinity of a pivot shaft provided for the pivotal operation. Then, some of the mowed grass adhered to the cover adjacent the pivot shaft can inadvertently fall through the gap to be dropped on the vehicle body and remain accumulated thereon.
Especially, in the case of a conventional construction having a pair of grass collecting containers mounted on the right and left above an engine section mounted on a rear portion of the traveling vehicle body, there is high likelihood of such accidentally fallen mowed grass being adhered and accumulated in a large amount on an engine hood of the engine section or on an area around it. Then, when an engine hood needs to be opened for a maintenance operation of the engine section, it becomes necessary to remove such accumulated object (grass) very carefully in order to prevent it from entering the engine room.